• John Locke Update

    How “price gouging” laws subsidize hoarding

    posted March 24, 2020 by Dr. Roy Cordato
    Public officials at all levels are pleading with consumers not to hoard basic household necessities like toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning, and sanitizing products, or groceries. There are no problems…
  • John Locke Update

    North Carolina’s COVID-19 Response: State Budget

    posted March 16, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    Our budget stalemate may have an unexpected and unintended benefit. Because the General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper could not agree on a new budget, state government has been operating…
  • John Locke Update

    Estimating the impact of coronavirus on state spending and taxes

    posted March 12, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    Families, employers, universities, health care providers, insurance companies, health care companies across North Carolina and the rest of the country, and governments at all levels are responding to coronavirus disease…
  • John Locke Update

    Confusion on NC FAST workers and Medicaid spending

    posted March 5, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has a history of breaking budgets with lax controls over Medicaid spending. It took nearly three years under Gov. Pat McCrory…
  • John Locke Update

    Six counties seek higher sales taxes

    posted February 26, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    After we posted a summary last week on sales tax referenda in four counties (Chatham, Forsyth, Madison, and Wayne), a citizen in Alamance County alerted us that a sales…
  • John Locke Update

    Four counties seek higher sales taxes

    posted February 20, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    Another election, another opportunity for counties to ask voters to raise the sales tax. Only two of 25 tax votes have passed when held in conjunction with presidential primaries, with…
  • John Locke Update

    Saving for the retirement of teachers and state employees

    posted February 10, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    At a certain age, everyone begins to wonder, “Have I saved enough for retirement?” For most people, the answer is that they have not and will not. Governments have not…
  • John Locke Update

    Restore the SALT deduction

    posted January 30, 2020 by Dr. Roy Cordato
    In the shadow of their impeachment vote last month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on and passed a bill that got few headlines, primarily because it will likely go…

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